Family of slain woman shocked over denied benefits

Thursday

Feb 20, 2014 at 6:33 PMFeb 20, 2014 at 9:19 PM

Leonard Sparks

ROSENDALE — For Jennifer Panet, grieving over her mother's alleged murder in January has taken a backseat to duty: arranging cremation and a memorial service, and cleaning out the Bloomingburg rental house where Margaret Regalia was found dead.

Now the Rosendale woman faces a new hurdle: trying to claim death benefits as her mother's beneficiary.

Local 464A of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, whose members include ShopRite employees like Regalia, denied benefits last week. The union's letter cited language limiting payouts to deaths by natural causes.

John Niccollai, the local's president, is vowing to press Panet's case when the union's trustees meet March 4. Their decision will determine not just a payout, but how Jennifer Panet views a union that represented her grandmother and counts her husband among its shop stewards.

“It was very shocking considering my grandmother was a member of the union for 30-plus years,” she said of the decision. “My mom had 20-plus years, and my husband has 20-plus years.”

Regalia, who worked at ShopRite in Montgomery, was found dead in a house on Nashopa Road in Bloomingburg on Jan. 13. Her son, Andrew Moore, is accused of second-degree murder in the case. It was Jennifer and Mike Panet who asked police to check the house when Regalia's store called to say she missed two days of work.

Since then, the couple has spent an estimated $5,000 on cremation, the memorial service and removing Regalia's possessions from the Bloomingburg house. Both were shocked by the denial of death benefit, which they said would be between $5,000 and $10,000.

“It's reprehensible,” Mike Panet said. “I don't know what other word I could use to describe it.”

It is also unusual, according to Russ Heyman, the principal for Misner Insurance Agency in Fallsburg. Insurers commonly limit the benefit if a person kills themselves within two years of starting a policy, but generally “death is death,” he said.

“I have never seen anything like that,” he said of the Panets' case. “It's usually the opposite; they'll double or sometimes triple the benefit for an accidental death.”

Modifying the plan requires a vote of the trustees, and Niccollai intends to press Jennifer Panet's case at next month's board meeting. He is “very hopeful” the benefit will be paid.

“It's a terrible story, and certainly the member doesn't need any more grief for us,” he said.